Domino's looks to pub trade to meet store opening target

Domino's Pizza is looking to the struggling pub industry to fulfil its appetite for new sites.

The rapidly expanding pizza delivery chain, which in the 13-weeks to 28 September saw its sales increase 17.8% to £83.3m, is growing at approximately 50 outlets a year.

The group, which has around half a dozen former pub sites in its 535-plus estate, said it has held talks with the likes of Punch Taverns, Enterprise Inns and Admiral Taverns about taking on some of their struggling sites.

Although the typical pub location's licence would need to be converted from A3 status to A5 (takeaway), a spokeswoman for Domino's said that in many cases this "was often easier" than trying to get an alcohol licence for a retail outlet, and wouldn't prove insurmountable.

However, the spokeswoman said that no specific deals had been done with the pubcos so far and added that the company was merely looking to build relations to broaden its access to good locations.

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By Chris Druce

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